New toys!

Poor Kye. 

He is so deprived, he never gets new toys. 

You see he has an older brother so every time he gets bored with his toys I go dig through Leyton's toy box and find something for him, but usually I only find part of the set.  For example,  he wanted tools because Leyton has "real" tools, so I started looking and all I could find were hammers.  Lots and lots of hammers.

So when Christmas came this kid was in heaven!  He received a whole set of plastic tools that included all kinds of tools AND nails and screws to use them with!

The other day I heard some loud noises and I came in to find Kye "fixing" my cabinets. 

He is so adorable sometimes :)

He also received a big box of Legos which we have made so many towers with I can't even count!

Pictures from Christmas

Christmas has come and gone, but the pounds I added don't seem to be going anywhere.  Why is that?  This season was fun but crazy this year, I seemed to have coped by eating my way through. :) 

On Christmas Eve we made the drive down to Medicine Lodge, KS to see Monte's family and it was a really good day.  We enjoyed our traditional mexican feast with soppapillas. YUM!!  4 of Monte's 5 nephews were there with their 7 kids and with our 3 that made for a very full house.  We managed to get a picture with all of them looking at the camera.  Smiling.....not so much :)

After presents we loaded all 3 kids in the car for the 90 minute drive back home.  Then the next morning the kids were up by 7:30am to see what Santa had brought them. 

Kye liked his football even though you can't tell from him face :)

Nia's favorite was her scarf she had been begging for :)

Monte is the king of Angy Birds so it was only fitting he got the t-shirt.

This was the best reaction to a present I have seen in a long time...and it was for an $8 game of Battleship.  Oh, simple pleasures.

Playing with his new Pirates of the Carribean Legos

 After playing with their presents for a couple hours it was time to make the trip to Larned for lunch with my side of the family. 

One of my favorite things, saying Grace before we eat :)



Leyton with his new DS games




Happy boy



Sweet pics of kiddos

I just wanted to post some pics of the kids. They seem to be growing so fast!

Nia had her first gymnastics meet this weekend :)

Kye being sweet and crossing his arms for us.

The kids playing a wild game of Bed Bugs.  Even Kye got in on the action! Leyton is very intense!

Okay, I am a bad blogger!  I am now the new owner of a awesome iPhone 4s with the icloud capabilities and I am going to try to be a better at blogger.  Supposedly I can upload pictures directly from my phone, which I am now using as my camera since it has more megapixels than my old camera. SO we will see if I can do better. 

I do have one picture to upload today.  This is our family christmas card picture.

The Great American Vacation...kindof :)

It is hard to believe that we have been home for two weeks already!  I was wanting to post this sooner, but you all know how busy life can get with 3 kiddos, a job and a house to take care of. 
We took a 9 day road trip to Madison, OH to visit our friends Lisa, Dave, Mattie and Molly :)

We started out on Saturday, June 18th at about noon and headed to St. Louis. We rented a super cool minivan for the trip with a built in DVD player so the kids were in seventh heaven watching movies most of the way there.  Monte is considered a kid since he climbed in the back and watched, too :)  We made really good time and got to our hotel at about 6:00pm.  We checked in and then decided to get something to eat.  After dinner the kids swam in the pool til after dark while Monte and I just lounged and enjoyed our evening without the 1 year old :)  (Kye stayed with my mom for the week)


Sunday we went to meet my brother for lunch and then onto the Budweiser Brewery Tour.  We really enjoyed getting to see him and the kids enjoyed the Clydesdale's.  Of course, I forgot my camera! So no pics :(

Monday we went to the Jefferson National Expansion Memorial (the arch in St. Louis)  We enjoyed the Louis and Clark Movie. 

In my old age I am getting very interested in history... Did you know that the Indian guide that Lewis and Clark used for the second half of their journey to the Pacific had a newborn with her?  I was flabbergasted that she could take a newborn through mountainous terrain during the winter.  I didn't even leave the house for a month after Nia was born!!

Then we went up the tram to the top of the Arch

And took pics from the top



The Air Force was there that day and Monte and Leyton got to go through this helicopter :)

Tuesday we headed to Indianapolis.  The GPS only messed up once and tried to drive straight through the Allison Transmissions warehouse :o  The boys went to Indianapolis Motor Speedway and Nia and I got our nails done.  I am kicking myself for not taking pics!!

Wednesday we went to Dayton, OH to the Air Force Museum.  I wrote down the wrong address and we ended up at the Air Force National Cemetery and it was in a very scary part of town, oops!  Thank God for Monte having his blackberry so we could get the correct address and finally arrive at the museum. 

Monte could have spent two whole day there but the kids and I were done after about 2 hours :)



Leyton found some flying games in the learning center.


We then headed for final destination Madison, OH.  We got to spend some relaxing time talking with our old friends Lisa and Dave.  It had been almost 2 years since we had seen them!

Thursday was onto Sandusky, OH to Cedar Point Amusement Park.  It rained on us almost the whole way there, but once we got there it cleared up and we were able to ride roller coasters!  Leyton was 1 inch short of being able to ride most of the rides so he and I kinda hung out on the smaller rides. (Thank God, my tummy does not like roller coasters!)  Here are some pics.

Friday was Niagara Falls, NY.  Again, it rained on the way there, but once we arrived it cleared up!  I am so glad we made the trip.  It is amazing what God has made there! 

This was a really cool tree that the kids thought they had to climb.

Funny face pic :)

This is Dave and Lisa with Leyton on the trails at Niagra


Saturday, our last full day was spent going to wineries.  I was just in awe of the vineyards.  They are soooo beautiful!  Of course, I forgot my camera that day!!!  There were grape fields everywhere you looked, almost as many wheat fields as Kansas has!

Sunday was a Mattie's 12th birthday party.  We waited to leave until after the party because Mattie and Molly were riding back with us to spend some time with there Dad who lives in Kansas.  We left at 3:30pm.  It took us 15 1/2 hours to get home.  We only made 1 wrong turn and we only stopped twice!!  The kids slept most of the way, thank GOD!!!

My mom met us at our house with Kye, I missed him SOOOOOO much!!!!

I really enjoyed our vacation, but there is no place like home!!  Right Dorothy :)

New Pics

These two won't even touch and they fell asleep together!

 My sweet little monster :)

 Nia was having fun with my camera, I am sure she will love me for posting these!



Last day of School

Well last Wednesday was the last day of Kindergarten for Leyton and 3rd grade for Nia.  They both had a great year and learned so much. 

This is before they left that morning.

Nia has become an amazing reader.  She read The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe and The Secret Garden just to name a couple.  This was also the first year for state assessment testing and she did awesome.  She received some of the highest scores in her class.  In math she was #3!!  We are so proud of her academic accomplishments!  She works really hard on everything she sets her mind to :)

She loved her teacher this year!  This is a pic of her and Mrs. Lowden. 

Leyton also had a great year!  He has come so far from the kid who when I would try and get him to color after scribbling a couple lines he would say "Mom, I am done can you finish this for me?"  He brings home his letter pages colored with such detail and precision (for a 5 yr old :)  His report card was awesome.  Of all the testing, he only missed 4 sight words!  He is definitely ready for 1st grade!

This a pic of him and Mrs. Ackerman :)

I always do a pic of this kids on the first and last day of school on the bench in front of the school.  Nia was not very excited about it this year, as you can tell.  Is was kinda cold and windy :)

They are both such good kids.  I can not believe how God has blessed us with such wonderful children.  I can't imagine a life without them :)